Non-Fiction | Self-Publishing Review

Review: The Average Joe’s Guide to Success by R.C. Farrington

Author and entrepreneur R.C. Farrington has written a book for those he calls “average Joes and Josies” who may be wondering when, if ever, they can excel in The Average Joe’s Guide to Success: The Brilliant Overachievers Will Never See You Coming.

If you fall into this category, as Farrington says he does, you will probably realize it early on: you won’t make straight A’s in school, and perhaps, like him, you will be tested at some point and routed towards vocational work. You may feel undervalued and lapse into a pattern of underachieving, because it seems pointless to […]

Barbara Scott2018-05-09T10:19:56+02:00January 10th, 2018|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Business, Non-Fiction, Self-Help|

Review: HARDBARNED! by Christopher J. Driver

In Hardbarned!: One Man’s Quest for Meaningful Work in the American South, an amusing and insightful memoir by Christopher J. Driver, readers are invited to commiserate with a hardworking American in a tough world, trying to pursue the happiness of writing over potential riches doing anything else.

Before this book was born, Driver spent years staring down some of the hardest questions of the last generation, namely: What am I supposed to do with this degree? What do I want to do with my life? Am I ever going to find a job that makes me happy? While these […]

John Staughton, Senior Reviewer2019-02-11T09:36:08+02:00December 14th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir, Non-Fiction|

Gambling on Granola: Unexpected Gifts on the Path of Entrepreneurship by Fiona Maria Simon

In 2000, following a divorce and depression, Fiona Maria Simon heard an inner voice: “Sell your granola.” She decided to take the chance and created Fiona’s Natural Foods, which went on to great success, as movingly told in Gambling on Granola: Unexpected Gifts on the Path of Entrepreneurship.

Never having had any business training, and knowing only that friends loved her homemade grain mixes, Simon searched for expertise. She serendipitously met people who helped to transform her local sales of hand-packed products to nationally distribution of cereals and energy bars. Her innate integrity impelled her to oversee every aspect […]

Barbara Scott2018-05-09T10:16:51+02:00October 26th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Business, Memoir, Non-Fiction|

Shed Your Chaos by Glenn C. Stewart

In Shed Your Chaos, author Glenn C. Stewart observes that many people are deficient in basic life skills, and believes that helping others as a Christian means imparting skills to reorganize – whether they are in a chaos of disorderliness or a pattern of high structure arrayed around the wrong priorities. This book aims to declutter people’s lives through a Christian perspective.

A bestselling author, church leader, motivational speaker, and human behavior consultant, Stewart begins with the basics: time and place. He implores people to set an inner compass towards God’s “true north,” and synchronize activities around God’s guidance […]

Barbara Scott2018-05-09T10:20:03+02:00October 26th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Non-Fiction, Religion, Self-Help|

Review: Clear Quiet Mind: Four Simple Steps to Deep Inner Peace by Kevin Schoeninger

In Clear Quiet Mind: Four Simple Steps to Deep Inner Peace, author Kevin Schoeninger provides techniques for relaxation, overcoming negativity, and welcoming new opportunities in life.

A life coach and personal trainer, Schoeninger brings an impressive degree of expertise and experience to the book, which helps elevate it over self-help books of its kind, as the book feels in part like undertaking one of his personal training sessions. As such, the book isn’t so much “self”-help, as a book with a guide.

The book definitely has a spiritual perspective, so it is best suited to those readers who come […]

Barbara Scott2019-02-11T09:45:48+02:00October 25th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews, Lead Story|Tags: Non-Fiction, Self-Help, Spirituality|

The Reluctant Caregiver by Joy Johnston

With an open heart and a sharp sense of humor, award-winning writer Joy Johnston chronicles both the reward and the heartache of caring for her parents in their last days in The Reluctant Caregiver.

Suffering through back to back hardship, Johnston’s father passed first from Alzheimer’s, and not long afterward, her mother developed colon cancer. Johnston lived with her mother for lengthy periods in the early stages of her cancer, coming back when death was imminent. Seeing these two strong people endure their final days was inspiring, harrowing and poignant, and Johnston eloquently expresses their strength of character, while […]

Barbara Scott2018-05-09T10:17:05+02:00September 26th, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Health, Medical, Memoir, Non-Fiction|

Review: The Little Green Wagon by M. D. Carter

Homelessness is often the result of a long series of mishaps and misfortunes; M. D. Carter, author of The Little Green Wagon: A Book of Journeys, chose homelessness as a way of encountering the verities of life.

Struggling with addiction in his early twenties, alienated and alone, Carter thought of suicide as his only solution. In an intoxicated state he attempted to end his life by carbon monoxide poisoning; when that proved slow and unpleasant, he slashed his wrists and drove his car into a guardrail. He woke up, he recalls, wracked with pain, frustration and regret.

After problems […]

Barbara Scott2019-02-11T09:36:22+02:00September 24th, 2017|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Memoir, Non-Fiction|

Black Sky: On Addiction and Awakening of the Human Being by Dr. Y

A dark saga of alcoholism, Black Sky: On Addiction and Awakening of the Human Being is inspiring, educational, and at times, horrifying.

The author, identified only as Dr. Y, recalls the first time he passed out drunk – at age 12. He successfully finished medical school, with a failed marriage as a casualty of his secret problem. As a physician, he married again, enjoyed financial success, all while consuming alcohol daily and writing himself illegal opiate prescriptions.

Finally charged with a felony, he found himself in a years-long struggle with the DEA and his private demons of addiction. His recovery […]

Barbara Scott2018-05-09T10:17:21+02:00September 22nd, 2017|Categories: New Releases|Tags: Addiction, Memoir, Non-Fiction|